Oh this is actually a done deal. Interesting. Where is he going to slot in, I wonder?

We have Potter, Peckham, Nick Schultz, Fistric, all fighting for spots in that that bottom area. At least I presume Fistric is a bottom pairing guy.

Also, I don't get why you don't like Sutton, NorOil.. he might not be the fastest guy, but he did quite well defensively last year. Even if you look at the numbers, he was pretty much on par with Nick Schultz (best statisically, if you consider "GAON/60"), but wasn't quite as good on the offense. But Sutton sacrifices offense for bone crushing hits. So I dunno.. sounds to me like we replaced Sutton with Sutton 1.2 or something. But I'll take that!

We've been through this Racki. I don't much like defensemen that cannot play the puck (at all) and don't have the footspeed to at least keep moderately fast skaters to the outside. Couldn't pass, couldn't skate. Better someone else came in. "Satisfactory" isn't good enough if you want to win.

And I'd keep Potter away from the team if I could. His sweet play at the start of the season regressed to the mean faster than you can say small early season sample size. Ok as a 7th or preferably 8th defenseman, but not as a regular.

Looks like theo is hurt from twitter reports, showed up to camp in rough shape (probably face down in a ditch). Fistric is a good number 6-7 dman who can hit. Sure hes no Smid with the puck but if he block shots and hits, that is good enough for me

Still need some work on that right side, unless we think J. Schultz will make it. Potter could swing in there too, but he'd slot in 3rd pairing and N. Schultz would bump up. Looks like Fistric played some on the right side last year too, if Left Wing Lock is correct. More than half of the time he played right side D.

If that was directed at me, I mentioned above, "unless we think J. Schultz will make it".

Nothing is certain. A good stint in the AHL doesn't mean anything. It's a good sign, and not a bad sign at all though.. but I wouldn't ink him in. You just never know. I'd like to see him here though. So humoring that he plays here (which isn't a stretch of the imagination given that he made the AHL look like peewee), this is what I'd consider:

First off Tambellini didn't seem to know very much on the status of a few injured Oilers players (perhaps he was just not wanting to publicly reveal too much though). Secondly, when asked if the Oilers could potentially move more draft picks for actual players Tambellini stated that the Oilers are currently in possession of 2 1st round picks for the 2013 draft when we in reality only own 1 1st round selection (our own) and 2 2nd rounders(Our own + the Ducks/Cogs trade).

This presser does not give me much confidence that Tambi is in the know of the daily running's of the Edmonton Oilers. With many bloggers and fans speculating that MacT will succeed Tambellini and become the new GM of the Edmonton Oilers somewhere down the line. I now wonder if he already has. The Fistric trade seems like more of a MacT type move.

I don't know, perhaps the conspiracy theorist in me is at work???? Ether way Tambellini doesn't seem to have a clue about the day to day running's of the team.

He caught some very good players not paying attention, and generally just looks like he's going to make it tough for opposing players trying to play in Dubbie's grill...

All the highlights, it seems he's very clear on when to back up and when to lay the boom... and he does lay the boom rather well.

235 hits with only 41PIM last season. That also tells me he's a physical player that either a) doesn't play stupid, or b) doesn't get beaten enough to need to haul a guy down from behind.

I'll go out on a limb and say I like this pickup for our 3rd pairing D. Could see some PK time, and I think will give opposing teams the "I'd better pick my head up" gut check before steamrolling into our zone - a sober second thought that I don't think many opposing forwards have really had to worry about since the Jason Smith/Igor Ulanov House of Pain...

M&O: I didn't get the same feeling at all that you did about him not knowing the status of the injured D. The only thing that caught my attention was about Peckham... he was asked if he was out of shape, and of course Tambo isn't going to say yes.. that's not his style. I do think he's battling condition problems though. Dude's in way better shape than I'll ever be, but there seem to be rumors that he's got Penn-decitis. That's Dustin Penner conditioning issues. LOL He didn't know a lot about Plante's injury specifics though maybe.. no big deal. I don't think Plante is a big part of our picture anyways. At least, not yet.

As far as the pick up, I liked his reasoning. He made it sound a lot like they recognized that the wheels were falling off with injuries already, so they plugged a hole quickly. I love that. Last year, they would have "evaluated" some completely inexperienced D. This was one of the more positive interviews I've heard.. I didn't get any feeling that he was acting as a puppet in any way. He actually seemed the opposite to me.. completely in charge, and being a smart GM. If anything he noted that the scouting department picked up on a need for Fistric, but that's their job... to advise the GM of good players to be had. BTW, you can't help but think that with all the people in Edmonton (bloggers.. media..) banging the drum of Fistric that that had an influence.

BTW, Ryan Jones is injured??? First I heard of it was in the interview... at least I think I heard that.

Biggest selling point for me already is that he does play the right just fine, apparently. Versatile... tough.. and solid defensively. Good stuff. I will give the Oilers fans the props on that one, because I'm pretty sure the Oil scouts/brass listen/read... even if its just via media.

Nick Schultz is such an underrated part of our blue line. Reliable. That's one thing we've been missing for a while, and I think he could be a keep part of this blueline. Sounds like he's going to be paired with Justin Schultz for at least a bit too. The two could make a great pairing. I'm feeling better and better about the blue, so long as Petry and/or Smid don't regress any.

Metal&Oil wrote: Tambellini stated that the Oilers are currently in possession of 2 1st round picks for the 2013 draft when we in reality only own 1 1st round selection (our own) and 2 2nd rounders(Our own + the Ducks/Cogs trade).

You caught that too eh? I have to conclude(I hope anyways) that he just misspoke and meant to say two second rounders.

As far as the injuries go and not knowing specifics I think we can probably chalk that up to the whirlwind all NHL GM's must be going through with getting everything in order so I can forgive that he only knows ballpark estimates off the top of his head.

One thing that does have me somewhat concerned though was his reaction to the Luongo question. I don't COMPLETELY hate the prospect Lu as an Oiler but only if what we give up isn't much. If by some chance it were to happen and Rexall fans start the "Loooooooooouuuuuuuu!" chant I just might swallow arsenic while hanging myself. That being said, I'm sure it's not really an option, right?

Speaking of interviews though, anyone watch the Krueger line of questions re: the captaincy? His evasiveness over Horcoff remaining captain? Interesting stuff.

Lastly, I personally love the Fistric acquisition, especially if it's just in a depth/bottom pairing role, a big, intimidating bruiser that can take a semi regular shift without bleeding goals and PIMS, hell yes. If Eager can find his game and fill that in a depth role at fwd and Harski coming into his own I think we might actually be getting somewhere near some half decent balance on this roster.

If only a perfect world could now deliver us a big top nine power forward type C that can win faceoffs and another top 4 D man with some versatility to his game and we might really have something here!!